6/22/09

> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net> To: telliehike@hotmail.com> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:58:33 +0000> > > hey mom,> sorry that i had to write a short e mail last week, well i thought that the joke was way funny, i thought you were serious at first so i started to tell everyone that i was going to study about flowers and so it was good to be able to tell the people that i was going to study something more manly. That is sad to hear about Benjamin, i remember him pretty well, seeing him made me think that no matter how hard that i felt the mission was i could look at him, seeing that he has some type of illness, but he is still doing all that he can to work for the lord, but it is really cool now to know that he is on the other side of the veil carrying on his missionary work for the Lord trying to bring those Lost souls to the light. I could tell that he has a great testimony for this church, it is sad to see people die, but like you said, i am glad to know that there is more after this life, like life goes on and there is pure happiness. It makes everything in this life so much more comforting knowing the plan of salvation, many people ask me if i am scared being in an area so dangerous. i tell them not really because i know that God is protecting me and i know that there is more after this life, i love this plan so much, it is perfect, because it was created by a perfect God. But lets see what has happened this week, well tuesday we had a baptism with Brandon, it was so funny, when i was performing the ordinance i didn´t really explain to him how it was exactly, because he has seen a few movies on how it was done, so i didn´t really think about it, and so when i went to dunk him he tried to go forward and so i slanged him back and he tried to stick his hand out of the water, so i had to pretty much submerge myself so that he was baptized completely. oh ya the water was soooooo cold, there wasn´t a hot water knob, so i put it on full blast of cold water, and brandon was so cold that he didn´t say anything until he got outside. and then wednesday we went out knocking doors for a long time, but we were knocking in an area where there was a lot of businesses that looked like houses and there wasn´t really anyone who wanted to listen. and then thursday we planed and then we went to the dangerous part of our area and we went to lunch, and then after that we went with one of our investigators that will be baptized in two weeks i think, it is because she has been investigating the church for about a year now, and she has been waiting for this one ex missionary to come back to baptize her, and he is back now so she will be baptized soon. well i think i told you how everything went down with my comp last week. so about two weeks ago there was an elder who ran away and when they found them he got put with me and elder agüero got put with his old comp. i don´t know why he ran away, he told me that he can´t handle pressure for a long time, and he went a little crazy, so he got moved down to jr comp. that is about it with all of that, he is a really cool person and he is really pumped up to work. i think we are going to have a lot of success in these few weeks together. well so saturday we knocked doors for a long time again and nobody really wanted to listen, more they wanted to prove that our religion is wrong. i just tell them about prayer, and they can find out for themselves, because there is no use in bible bashing, the spirit goes away and you can´t really teach that well after. after that we went to brandon's house to teach his mom, and sister, but while we were teaching there was a shooting for about 5 minutes not too far away from where we were, we just sat on the floor and we just talked, and then we put on a movie of the church and they didn´t let us leave for about four hours, well that was about my week, i can tell that the Lord is protecting me a lot and without him i think i would have already been dead. well mom, i love you so much, i hope that you have a great week.> love,> elder robert

hey mom,

Well i had transfers this week and i got switched to the Area right next to my old one, but the funny thing is, is that it is really poor and it is the Most dangerous area in the mission, but that is o.k. we just have some special rules and if we follow those rules we will be o.k. my new house is really awesome except for the bathroom, when you sit down on the toilet, your knees touch the door and push it open a little bit, and when you take a shower, your leggs are touching the toilet, it is really awesome. But yea i am really excited for this transfer, it is like we are going to open up this area, because right now there aren´t that many investigators. This week with my companion elder Agüero and i we had to go to so many houses knocking doors to find people to teach, it was one week of a lot of walking, but it was the most satisfying work because i really felt that i had nothing left at the end of the day, but God always gave me the strength to do what i needed to the next day, it wasn´t until today that i felt beat, but now i feel ready for a better weak. We contacted this one family and the mother of the family let us in and asked us if we could talk to the family because right now my children don´t believe in God and they walk really bad stealing things and what not, and i told her that God gives us a chance to repent and our faith is like a seed that will grow, but by the end of the lesson that we had taught the spirit was extremely strong, everyone in the room had tears in their eyes, even the dad who was working on some plans in the next room felt the spirit to come join us in the middle of the lesson. It was so awesome, i knew that they all felt like they wanted to change, and i know they can, i told them it is going to be hard, but with the help of the spirit, we can do anything. that was my favorite experience for the week. i don´t really have too much time this week, but i would like to tell you that i love you mom, and i hope you have a great week,

love elder robert

p.s. i wanted to get my papers in because i only have about a year left and i have no plan after i get home, and plus everyone keeps asking what i am going to do after the mission and i usually don´t know what to say, but i am not sure if i want to do stuff with flowers, maybe it will be cool. but don´t worry i am 100% focused on the mission.

> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net

> hey mom,>

well i don´t think i ever thanked you for the box, but i am going to do it again just in case i didn´t. thanks mom for the box that you sent me, and for the money you put in the bank for me. well lets see, i am really good right now, i am still pretty healthy i think, i don´t really hurt anywhere. Just a little bit in my big toe and nothing more. so i think i am going to go to the store today and buy the vitamins. oh so yea we are teaching a family that doesn´t really speak spanish, but they didn´t have too much time this week to listen to us. but they really want something better in their lives, it is really hard to say stuff in english, i always say it in the way i would say in spanish, and i always say a word in spanish. but yea we are finding a lot of different investigators right now, because a lot of our investigators don´t want to progress right now, i am sure one day they will accept this in their lives, but right now isn´t their time, and i have no time to waist in finding the people who are need of this gospel right now. well it is true that everyone needs this in their lives, but my time is too short to waist it. we are going to keep on visiting them, but i am sure missionaries in the future will find them and teach them what they need. because there is a time a place for everything. we still visit them and everything but not as frequent as before, but these investigators that we have now showed up to sacrament meeting all by themselves walking a couple miles to the church building, i was so touched to see that someone really really wants to know that this is true, by showing up by foot and seeing how some people find it hard to go to church because they have to wake up early. but after it was all done every single one of them said that they can´t wait until next sunday to go to church. their names are dolores, sylvia, jose luis, and i can´t remember who is the other person but she is really cool. Julio the person that we baptized still is really strong in the church, they are already talking about going to the temple and doing baptisms for the dead for their family. He seems to have more faith in the church than a lot of the members right now. When he started out he was only taking the discussion because of his wife, until we challenged him to pray and when he did that, he had no choice but to follow his prompting because he said he knew he could not deny it. but i am just way excited for him right now and i hope all goes well with him. well right now i am not sure if i have transfers or not , but i sure hope i don´t, but if i do i know it is for the best and my talents are needed elsewhere. but i would love to stay here. oh ya mom, i have a favor to ask of you, will you if you have time send an application for me or get an application for me to go to byui. If you could that would be great, i love you so much mom,

Have a great week o.k.>

love,> robert atwood

5/18/09

hey mom,

well my week has just been awesome, just doing the normal stuff, but my weeks are never boring. there is always something new to learn everyday, well lets see what i did this week. Tuesday we went walking in the street after a lesson with one of our converts, and there was this gangster who looked like he was a gangsters from the 80´s he had short with a plaid shirt tucked in and a black belt that went to his belly, he had a cain, and a dress hat on which looked pretty cool, but he came up to us and we started talking and we asked him if we could go over to his house to talk, and then he leaned over to his friend and said that you need to go over to my house when the missionaries come over because they have the truth, then we left and then when we visited him he had to go to work, but he was like i am so sorry, but they just called me to work, but he told us to go over to his house this tuesday, so we will see what happens, i am pretty sure that he will be baptized soon, because he know literally everything about the church, he has been reading the book of mormon and everything. The day after that, we went to lunch and for some reason the sister was running a little late, so we went back a little later, and after we ate, we went back out in the street and we contacted this one guy who got deported from the u.s. but before we asked if we could go to his house he asked us when could we go to his house, we were like what? but we took down his directions and we went to his house. and when we went there he told us that he has his wife and kids in the u.s. and they are going to come down here in june, but they don´t speak any spanish hardly, so he told me i will have to teach them about the gospel. he told us that he already has a testimony in the church but he needs to do it with his family, so i am hoping that his family gets down here soon. what else, oh right now our investigators are doing really good, they are all progressing, but they find it hard to get themselves up early in the morning to go to church. We have this one investigator, her name is Dolores and we have been working with her for about 6 weeks now, and now she has a testimony that this is true, but she has fear because her father is something big in the catholic church, but i am going to send her a talk by president Hinckley that talks about how the church is true and nothing else matters. but that is really true, when we know that the church is true, we should fear the opinion of other people, because we know that in the end we will be on the right hand of God. I am glad to know that this is true and to know if i do all i can, i will be there on the right hand of God. So i guess you could say that i have been truly blessed, even when the hardest storm hits me. thank you all for your prayers. i really need them, i know i can´t do it on my own. it sounds that you are all doing fine at home trying to stay healthy, well i was doing good for a while trying to eat healthy until someone sent me a whole box load of chocolates, oh ya, mom, did you put money in my account, i need to buy those multivitamins or however you spell it. wow i really am forgetting english, my recent convert speaks english, but i have learned to talk like him and i think it is right until i really think about it, and yea i will have to talk to you guys through kris on christmas, so that you guys can understand me, well i have to go mom, i love you sooooooooooooooooooooo much, and tell Brogan that i am excited for him to be sending in his papers.

love,> robert atwood

this is just a joke, i don´t really wear these outside

Email 5/5/09

> Subject: Re: > From: robertatwood@myldsmail.net> To: telliehike@hotmail.com> Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 22:22:36 +0000> > >

hey mom,> well this week was a really short one, but the work was a little bit harder, because the people here are really scared of the flu, and the government is making it out to be worse than it really is, but we are a lot safer in torreon than a lot of other places, because the virus lives in humid and cool places and torreon is the opposite of that. and they say that the heat here kills the virus. but my health has been really good lately, (knock on wood). well nothing really funny happened this week, we just walked in the hot sun for hours and hours this week and i am a lot redder, i don´t tan, i just get more red, and i am wearing sun screen everyday, i think i need to put it on two times a day. but yea with all of the people saying we couldn´t come over this week, we still had the opportunity to teach. we had an opportunity to teach those two old people that you were asking about that were from a different faith and the minister put bad things in their head, when we taught them, we taught them about the restoration again so that they could understand it better, it was really cool, the spirit was definitely there to testify to them that this is real. the part that was really cool was when we taught about prayer, they were so excited to hear that God really listens and that God really answers, the lady knew that God answers prayers and had a testimony of that, she told us that her religion doesn´t teach that though, I felt as we were teaching them that they are definite baptisms, but it all depends on their answer, and i know that if they pray, they will receive their answer that this is true. we have another appointment with them tomorrow and we are going to challenge them for baptism, so tomorrow will be interesting. well the kids that had the baptismal date couldn´t be baptized this week because of the flu, here in mexico right now we can´t have big gatherings of people, so we postponed it until this sunday. For this reason we didn´t have church this sunday, it felt weird to not have church, but we went to the houses of many members and with the permission of the bishop we gave the sacrament to the members and shared some scriptures and sang hymns, and that was about it, then we went to the next house. this week was pretty fun, i don´t know why, but it has just felt like our lessons have been a lot more effective. well mom i don´t want to say too much because i want to be able to talk on sunday. i will call on saturday to confirm the time, because i am still not sure on what time, but you are going to call the relief society president´s house. are you going to invite kim? your decision is fine with me because you know it is mother´s day. well mom, i love you sooooooooooooooooo much, i hope that you have a great week, make sure you take precautions this week and keep yourself healthy. i love you and have fun this week also.>

love,> robert shane atwood